Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Creation

It finally happened!  I finally created some jewelry pieces that are totally my own idea!  I do much better copying  emulating other people's designs.  But I finally had an original thought.  (It might not happen again for years, so enjoy it!)

It all started when I was in my son, Rick's, room.  He had this container on his desk with a bunch of guitar picks.  They were so pretty.  Like this:


Now, aren't those just gorgeous?  They just called to me.  I decided that they would look great in jewelry.  So I decided to give it a shot.  Here is what I came up with.

The red pick is the first one that caught my eye.  I didn't know what I was going to do with it.  Looking through my stash, I found part of a necklace of my girls' that had been mangled in the washing machine a number of years ago (what? you don't save ruined jewelry in case you can use parts of it?).  I cut off a section and glued it to the pick  Super easy.  Hope the glue holds!

The next one was this blue pick.  Originally I had glued on a little wire butterfly I'd made out of wire scraps.  But it didn't look terribly great.  Then I had this idea.  I love it!  It will make the perfect pendant to go with my swirly earrings.

 The last one is this one that reminded me of a deep colored Tiger Eye.  I decided to add a stone that I had.  Then I got crazy and added my own chain.  It's kind of hard to see in this picture, but it's wonderful! I was surprised at how easy the chain was to make. And I love the look of the copper instead of silver.









These obviously aren't made out of a pick.  But I figured as log as I was on a music theme...I made these a couple of weeks ago.  This way they are treble clefs.  From the other direction they are Ss.  See, I'm multi-purpose, too!








Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Trees Of Life

I've made a bunch of jewelry in the past month.  No too many cards.  So I'm posting about jewelry again. I'll just do a few at a time, though, so as not to be totally boring!  This post will show the trees of life I've made.

I went online to learn how to make these, then did some of my own adaptations.  The video I found most helpful was actually by a woman who has had several jewelry videos I have watched.  Here's the one for the tree of life:  Camille Sharon.  I like hers because the beads don't all go straight.  You can see the straight bead ones online--they don't look very tree-like.  These do.

My first one was actually an attempt to copy the work of  Vixens Natural Jewelry.  But no one seems to think mine looks like a tree and moon like hers do.  Don't know if that's because of the bead or the position of the wire.  Actually, I think I need to make a branch across the "moon" and perhaps use thicker wire.  I'll be trying this again for sure.





My second one seems to be a favorite of those who have seen it.  I used square wire for the frame instead of round and made it a little smaller than the moon one. May try this again perhaps with thicker wire also.  But I like this one.    I have plenty of these pearls, so I can certainly make more.







This one is made like the pearl one, but with turquoise beads. Back to using round wire, though, for the frame  It's also a little smaller than the pearl one.  I really like it as well, but maybe another branch?  Or maybe just move one down a little.



That's all for now.  More later!